His Speed Kills

On an otherwise quiet Thursday evening Carl Hagelin (2007 6th) of the Michigan Wolverines gave some serious hints that the 2009-10 season was going to be his break out season.
Hagelin was named the game's "First Star" as Hagelin's 4th ranked Michigan Wolverines jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on for a 3-2 win over the Niagara Purple Eagles.

Hagelin notched his 2nd goal of the season as he is off to his best start in his career at Michigan at 2-1-3. It was a nice finish of a play where Hagelin was standing alone on the right side of the goal and just slammed the feed into the net for Michigan's 2nd goal of the game.

It is a change from previous seasons where the fast skating Hagelin would get off to slow starts or simply miss on easy setups. Hagelin as a junior has been asked to take his game to a higher level by Michigan Coach Red Berenson this season has responded so far.

We have been a fan of Hagelin since his freshman season as his skating, his forechecking and his ability to score clutch goals. Before his highlight reel goal against Notre Dame in the 2008 Frozen Four, we felt that this young man from Sodertalje, Sweden had NHL potential.

As a freshman, it was his very impressive defensive skills and forechecking ability that got our attention. At the time little did we think that the Rangers would be switching coaches to John Tortorella but Hagelin would thrive in the "Safe is Death" system Tortorella uses.

Hagelin in 82 games prior to this season has respectable career numbers of 24-29-53 but we have predicted that Hagelin has the potential to put up 25 goals this season. If he does then Michigan will have a great chance to return to the Frozen Four in 2010.

The only other Ranger prospect in action on Thursday evening was Luke Pither (Traverse City) of the Barrie Colts. Pither who is the leading goal scorer among Ranger prospects with 10 goals (2nd overall scorer with 18 points) was held scoreless as his Barrie Colts fought back from trailing 3-1 in the 3rd period only to fall in the shoot out 4-3 to the Sarnia Sting.

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Getting Ready for a Big Weekend

Friday night will have all the top Ranger Prospects in action highlighted by a huge test for 2009 1st round pick Chris Kreider as his Boston College will be facing Notre Dame. Wisconsin with Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh will be looking for their first win of the season as they head to Minnesota State.

That plus 11 other Ranger prospects will be in action on Friday night and we will have all the results for you.

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Check This One Out Yourself

Wednesday evening was also the Kingston Frontenac's annual salute to the Canadian Military and this year they brought in Don Cherry to help raise money for the Canadian charity "Soldier On.

Each member of the Frontenacs wore a special Don Cherry jersey that is currently being sold on EBAY to raise funds for Soldier On. Here is the link to the Ethan Werek jersey that currently is up to 510.00 US dollars.

The best way to describe these uniforms is to not describe them as they are beyond ugly. But it is for a good cause and one day Ethan Werek will be wearing a Ranger uniform.

(Hagelin courtesy of B Shields of MLive.com)